Landladies' Race

Painted in a town local to me, just 4 miles up the road in Fleetwood.
This piece was commissioned by Fleetwood Museum Trust & Friends and Fleetwood HAZ Cultural Programme as part of Historic England’s High Street Heritage Action Zones Project.

The brief was to connect Fleetwood’s past to present in public spaces.
Integrating the ideas and aspirations of local residents with historical reference to remember the past, connect the present and look forward to the future.

After workshops, community engagement, flicking through archives and extensive research gathered from the museum and previous HSHAZ projects, the final subject we decided on was the Landladies’ Race from the ‘only In’ Fleetwood’ part of the museum display.

Back in the day, along with its world famous fishing industry Fleetwood was also a thriving tourist destination attracting thousands of holidaymakers to its scenic lake district coastline and beaches every summer. With the many guesthouses in the town somewhere along the way (in 1956) The Landladies’ Race was formed and continued to be an annual event for the next 48 years.
The Race was all for fun, some people got dressed up and thousands spectated as all the landladies from local guest houses raced around the Mount carrying service trays with teapots and cutlery.

The mural revisits this era and aims to spark new conversation about a nearly forgotten time with the next generation to talk about and hopefully pass on the tales for years to come.

Design includes ‘Only in’ - Museum reference,
Fleetwood in old font from a historic poster advertising Fleetwood,
The waitress/ landlady with the tray and cutlery,
Finally the teapot with reference to the mount where the race took place and the dates from start to the last one in 2004.